Taliban Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has urged Afghan traders and industrialists to seek alternative trade routes and reduce their reliance on Pakistan.
Baradar’s stance comes following the continued closure of border crossings between the two countries.
“The closure of Pakistan’s crossings has not only hurt our traders but also disrupted markets and affected ordinary people,” Baradar said Wednesday during a press conference at the Taliban’s presidential palace.
Baradar said one of Afghanistan’s key economic challenges is the annual import of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of low-quality medicines from Pakistan. He called on pharmaceutical importers to “immediately find other countries and routes” for sourcing medicines.
The deputy prime minister gave Afghan traders who have existing contracts or purchases in Pakistan a three-month deadline to settle their accounts and end all imports from the country. He instructed the Ministry of Finance to halt the processing of medicine imports from Pakistan once the deadline expires.
Baradar warned that traders who continue to import or export goods through Pakistan after the deadline will do so at their own risk. “If they face problems, the Taliban administration will not intervene,” he said.
He repeated his call for Afghan businesses to adopt alternative export and import routes “as quickly as possible.”
Baradar said the Taliban made the decision in response to Pakistan’s continued closure of trade and transit routes, which, according to him, has caused losses of more than $122 million in just three weeks. He accused Pakistan of using trade, transit and humanitarian channels “to pursue political objectives.”
Addressing officials from the ministries of finance, industry and commerce, as well as business leaders, Baradar said the Taliban administration had been “forced to take this step” in reaction to Pakistan’s actions.
He added that border crossings would reopen only if Pakistan provided “strong and credible guarantees” to ensure that such closures would not happen again under any circumstances.
